Patient movement

[JPINFV]

In your post you mentioned a "flat break-away." Is that another term for a scoop stretcher?

I used flat/breakaway because I've heard it referred to as both. It's set up so that you can place it on a gurney and there are lockable joints in the middle that allows the patient to be put in a sitting position when on the gurney. A big advantage when using them (same advantage as a scoop, though) is that you can remove the plastic strip holding it together and then pull it apart to leave the patient on the hospital gurney.

 

[KEVD18]

The pain level was not high enough for them to initiate pain control.

i dont armchair quaterback other peoples treatment very often, but i take issue with this statement. the patient was in pain, therefore there was enough pain to manage it. plain and simple. they had the ability to make the patient more comfortable and they didnt. bad patient care in my book.

im willing to bet that they dont push narcs often because they are a pain. especially in system where the replacement of used narcs is complicated or time consuming. ive seen this before with two services ive worked for. one service had a cumbersome system for narc. when you used something, you had to do the paperwork, go to the pharmacy, draw your replacements and log them in. the medics at this company hardly ever used narcs, especially on the night shift when all that time could be spent sleeping. another service ive worked for had several full and tagged narc boxes in the safe in dispatch. if you broke a seal, you went to dispatch, turned in your used narcs kit and drew a fresh one. they also had one or two spares at some of the sub stations. the next day, one of the supers would round up all the opened kits, take them to the pharmacy and replenish them. with such an easy system, i saw much more agressive treatment.

 

[flhtci01]

I haven't seen the mention of a whole body vacuum splint. I have used those with hip fractures and they seen to stabilize the hip rather well. There is still the issue of movement to the splint. Without actually seeing the pt, location and manpower available it is hard to say which route to go. With a goal of as little movement as possible, I would look at a possibly a lift of 4-5 inches and slide the splint under the pt and then lower the pt back down. Again this would depend on a number of factors.

 

[KEVD18]

I haven't seen the mention of a whole body vacuum splint. I have used those with hip fractures and they seen to stabilize the hip rather well. There is still the issue of movement to the splint. Without actually seeing the pt, location and manpower available it is hard to say which route to go. With a goal of as little movement as possible, I would look at a possibly a lift of 4-5 inches and slide the splint under the pt and then lower the pt back down. Again this would depend on a number of factors.

toys are nice, but not everybody has them.

 

[flhtci01]

toys are nice, but not everybody has them.

Wouldn't call it a 'toy' but a piece of equipment to be considered. Not every company I have worked/trained with have it but the ones that do have it, utilize it.


Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of 'toys' out there, I just don't think this is one of them.

 

[KEVD18]

sorry, but i call everything above the minimum standard equipment a toy.

 

[Oregon]

As we don't have a full body vac. splint, and our high-angle neighbors do, I too call it a toy.
Useful for them, and probably pretty useful in this case (they do a spandy job of total immobilization.)

 

[BossyCow]

I've used the vacu-splints and I like them in some applications, but in this scenario, with a seated pt who is in pain from a hip fx, I don't think it would be my method of choice. If the pt is lying down and can be rolled onto the splint with a minimum of jostling, then sure, but with a seated pt in the position described, the movement it would take to work the vacu-splint under her rear end would cause some major pt discomfort. Also, the vacu-splints have to have all the filling equally distributed around the affected area in order to stabilize the fx properly. Moving the big one around and scooting under a seated pt would cause the filling to shift big time. Toy or not, wouldn't be my first choice.

 

[mycrofft]

Military's had those a long time, only green.

A body bag will do if you can tape the patient to it.
Not real good unless you have stretcher bars of some sort, because the sides tend to come together, no matter how hard you pull them apart. This might be uncomfortable for a fx pelvis, hip, shoulder etc.
Get the SKED.

 

[EMT-P633]

yeah, they bought a board. you didnt mention anything about cervical involvement, but thats irrelevant. this patient definatley needs to be boarded. so of course that means supine, not lateral recumbant.

I agree with ya 100%, but since this is all hypothetical and all. would you still imobilize her supine if she is suffering kyphosis? just food for thought...

 

[flhtci01]

I've used the vacu-splints and I like them in some applications, but in this scenario, with a seated pt who is in pain from a hip fx, I don't think it would be my method of choice. If the pt is lying down and can be rolled onto the splint with a minimum of jostling, then sure, but with a seated pt in the position described, the movement it would take to work the vacu-splint under her rear end would cause some major pt discomfort. Also, the vacu-splints have to have all the filling equally distributed around the affected area in order to stabilize the fx properly. Moving the big one around and scooting under a seated pt would cause the filling to shift big time. Toy or not, wouldn't be my first choice.

Don't see where it is a seated pt. "on her left side, with her back firmly up against the wall."

 

[BossyCow]

Don't see where it is a seated pt. "on her left side, with her back firmly up against the wall."

Okay, I read 'back against the wall' as seated. But still, without a lot of room to maneuver the vacu splint under the pt, my course of action would be probably to use the sam stabilizer first, then use the soft stretcher to move to the gurney and possibly use the vac-u splint by laying it on the gurney and lifting the pt onto it instead of trying to move the splint under the pt.

This would all depend of course on the pain level of the pt, how they tolerated movement and how many people I had handly to lift and tote.